480 Corbis Lays Off 160, Abandons Assignment Division June 28, 2007 By Daryl Lang Fifteen percent of Corbis employees are losing their jobs in cuts orchestrated by incoming CEO Gary Shenk, who starts his new job Monday. On Thursday Corbis said it was letting go 160 employees in 17 offices worldwide. The lost jobs span many departments and include positions as high as vice president. Corbis is also getting out of two businesses in which it had struggled: assignment photography and digital asset management, a service aimed at managing corporate media libraries. "We're saying goodbye to a lot of great people today who made great contributions to Corbis," Shenk said in an interview Thursday. "We're trying to be as fair and supportive as possible with them given the difficult process they're going through." Shenk said the cuts were the result of an organizational review he initiated in April, around the time he was picked to succeed outgoing CEO Steve Davis. The cuts are designed to make the Bill Gates-owned photo agency profitable for the first time. Shenk says Corbis is meeting its financial targets for 2007 and the layoffs are not related to 2007 performance. "It's a very difficult day for Corbis, but on a different level it's a very exciting day. We believe having done this very strategically, and thinking, 'How do we do basically more with less?,' today we don't believe in any way we've sacrificed our ability to generate revenue, and we've cut out 15 percent of our headcount," Shenk said. "Most of our employees understand that Corbis needs to make a decisive step toward profitability," Shenk continued. As word of the layoffs spread Thursday, Corbis employees said they were surprised by the number of people let go. "During the day everybody was waiting for the hammer to drop," said one Corbis staffer. "Nobody knew if it was going to happen to them." Corbis is planning to sell its digital asset management group, which employs about a dozen people, though the company says it is not ready to announce a deal. Corbis will continue to operate the sales and customer service elements of the asset management business. Corbis once tried to make its assignment division a player in commercial assignment photography, but it had a hard time retaining talent, losing head agent Thea Vaughan earlier this year and star photographers Dimitri Daniloff and Michelle Asselin last year. The company says it will complete all representation projects that are currently under contract. The number of people working for Corbis is now between 900 and 950. Corbis said its 2006 revenues were about $251 million. Corbis's top competitor, Getty Images, employed 1,750 people at the end of 2006 with annual revenues of $800 million. Getty also has undertaken layoffs in recent months, though in smaller numbers. Both of the large photo agencies grew by acquiring smaller companies, which at times has saddled them with redundancies in support staff and technology. No changes to the Corbis executive team are planned as part of this week's layoffs, Shenk said. Throughout its history, Corbis has reorganized and restructured every few years as it tries to turn a profit. 12 2007-06-29T19:17:18Z 0 2008-03-12T12:56:10Z true 14841 false 8586 2007-07-01T02:11:56Z Rome true false corbis_lays_off_160_abandons_assignment_division__source_pdnonline 1 2008-03-12T12:56:10Z 1154